HOT SPRINGS — Two 14-year-old boys, convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl earlier this year on the Hot Springs Lakeside school campus, have been sentenced to “an indeterminate amount of time” in the custody of the Department of Human Services’ Youth Services Division.
The boys, sentenced in Garland County Juvenile Court, can be held only until they turn 18 because they were sentenced under standard juvenile jurisdiction, Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Michelle Lawrence said. For the two to be held until they turn 21, they would have had to have been sentenced under extended juvenile jurisdiction.
The two were sentenced to the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center near Alexander, where they will undergo counseling and a sex-offender assessment.
“With the juvenile system the entire purpose is rehabilitation,” Lawrence said.
The boys were arrested Feb. 26.